This fall’s taste test vegetable – the sweet potato - is already taking root and flourishing in gardens across the district. Planted in
May, these tasty tubers take nearly three months to grow big and
delicious underground. Sweet potatoes are an easy summer crop
that requires very little upkeep, especially with all of this summer’s rain. Ready for harvest in late September, we will let these
delicious potatoes cure for a month above ground as their sugars
and sweetness develop. October will bring sweet potato taste
tests to all of the schools, as students will get to taste the fruits –
and roots! – of their labors.

Purpose of newsletter: To keep parents, students, school personnel, community members, and other interested parties informed of the
Wylde Center’s Decatur Farm to School programming in the community.

DF2S Donates Two Delicious Books to CSD Early
Learning Center and Elementary Schools
In conjunction with the fall 2013 planting and subsequent taste tests of sweet potatoes,
we are pleased to announce the donation of two books to the CHECLC and CSD elementary
schools. DF2S is donating three copies of Little Sweet Potato by Amy Beth Bloom to College
Heights ECLC, and three copies of Sweet Potato Pie by Kathleen Lindsey to each elementary
school in Decatur. What’s more, Tabitha Wiedower, who is a DF2S committee member and
third grade teacher at Glennwood Elementary, has created a teacher’s guide to pair with
each book to aid the teachers with incorporating the book in their lesson plans. Teachers
will be able to access the guide via our website: www.decaturfarmtoschool.org.

Save the Date!
DF2S Fall Dine Out
The Fall 2013 DF2S Dine Out is scheduled for
Tuesday, October 22nd from 5-9pm. Mark
your calendars to support local restaurants
and Decatur Farm to School. Stay tuned for a
list of participating restaurants.

A special thanks to Little Shop of Stories, who provided the donated books at a discounted
rate.

Funds raised by the Dine Outs support taste tests like
this one at CHECLC.

Healthy Menu Changes in
City Schools of Decatur
The CSD Nutrition Department is very excited to share some
changes that are taking place with our food products, menus,
and staff training. During the summer months, we have removed
approximately 70 products from our product supply list, which
included yellow food coloring, dehydrated au gratin potatoes and
scalloped potatoes, vegetable shortening, shrimp poppers, turkey
corn dogs, fish nuggets and fish sticks, breakfast bites, breaded beef
patty nuggets, and breaded mozzarella sticks. In addition, we have
added approximately 50 new items including Greek yogurt, Craisins,
falafel, whole grain muffins made without hydrogenated oils, rice
pilaf, couscous, sweet potato tater tots made without hydrogenated
oils, orzo pasta, quinoa, black bean burgers, whole grain biscuits,
peanut-free (soybean) spread, and tofu.
We have introduced some of these new items to our staff in the
Food Production Course this summer when we tested new recipes. We have trained our 12 kitchen managers on how to clean,
prepare, and cook different vegetables and foods that were new to
them and to the CSD menu. Some of the recipes tested included
Bok Choy Salad, Asian Orzo Salad, Glazed Baby Turnips and Carrots,
Tofu Stir Fry, Red Lentil Soup, and Layered Eggplant, Zucchini, and
Tomato Casserole. We are planning to continue testing new recipes
and conducting taste tests in the cafeteria, while gradually introducing other well-tested recipes on the CSD lunch menus.
Another big change that we are planning to implement is making
peanut butter sandwiches with honey instead of jelly. We could not
find an affordable jam or fruit spread that did not contain high fructose corn syrup, and our solution was to completely eliminate jelly
and replace it with honey. We are hoping that the children will not
mind the change, as peanut butter sandwiches are a big hit in many
schools. Please feel free to give us your feedback at any time! We
welcome all comments, suggestions, questions, and concerns.

Thank You Partners
Thank you to the City
Schools of Decatur for
supporting Farm to
School initiatives in their
schools.

FALL
2013

Return Service Requested

Ana Kucelin, MS, RD, LD, Menu and Wellness Specialist for
City Schools of Decatur akucelin@csdecatur.net
Volunteers, parents and students built raised beds at Clairemont Elementary this past
February for their school garden.

While most of us know sweet potatoes as the buttery, syrupy,
sugary, marshmallow-laden treat from Thanksgiving dinner,
they are actually delicious both sweet and savory, and are full of
necessary and beneficial nutrients. A single serving of sweet potatoes can contain nearly 800% of the daily vitamin A critical to
good eyesight, bone growth, and healthy function of the immune
system and major organ systems! Sweet potatoes are also a great
source of potassium, magnesium, and vitamin C.
Sweet potatoes were cultivated at least 5,000 years ago, likely in
South America, and are now eaten worldwide because of their
ease of growth and high nutritional value. Sweet potatoes come
in many varieties: purple, yellow, green, pink, and the orange
that is most well known in the U.S. We are looking forward to
harvesting and tasting these orange delights with Decatur students this fall!

Dear Students, Teachers and Parents,
Welcome to the new school year! I serve on the Decatur Farm to
School Committee. As part of the Wylde Center, we have partnered
with City Schools of Decatur (CSD) to provide Farm to School initiatives to all of our schools since 2009.
We use this newsletter as a way to keep all of our CSD parents and
faculty informed about the great programs happening every day in
the classroom, in the gardens, in the cafeteria, and in the community. Our committee is parent, student, and faculty-driven. One
of the big reasons Decatur Farm to School has been a success is
because parents like you give his/her talents to the effort.
Interested in becoming involved? Join the committee, volunteer for
a taste test, pull weeds with your child in the gardens, buy a t-shirt,
go out for the Dine-out and so much more! Contact me at lcpawloski@gmail.com to volunteer. For more information, you can find
us at www.decaturfarmtoschool.org. Be sure to like us on Facebook, and follow us through Twitter. Here’s to another great year
of wonderful food and garden experiences!
See you in the garden!
Lucia Pawloski, Chair of the DF2S Committee

New Decatur Farm to School Faces

(2013 Summer Interns, Cont’d.)

There are two new faces on the Decatur Farm to School scene, and we are pleased to announce their arrivals! Melanie Heckman started at
the Wylde Center in February and Ana Kucelin joined City Schools of Decatur in February.

Nate Scully, 11th grade

As an ecologist with a passion for teaching, Melanie Heckman is thrilled to be joining the Wylde Center as
the Education Program Manager. Melanie oversees youth programming for school groups, after school
activities, summer camps, and Decatur Farm to School. She also coordinates and teaches the Wylde Center’s environmental education field trips and develops curriculum for all of the education programs. For
DF2S, Melanie coordinates the school taste tests, organizes the teacher trainings, and provides managerial
support to the new Garden to Classroom program. Melanie is excited to combine her environmental education experience with her love for community gardening, while helping students discover the wonder of
the streams and gardens in their own backyards. She said, “Opportunities for environmental education in
urban settings are rare, and I am excited to work at the Wylde Center. They make this education about the
environment, agriculture, and wellness so immediately accessible to people who otherwise would have
little chance to learn about it firsthand.”
Ana Kucelin is the new Menu and Wellness Specialist for the City Schools of Decatur. As a registered dietician with a Masters in nutrition, Ana began working with CSD in February 2013 to evaluate the costs and
nutritional contributions of the schools’ menus, as well as ensure they comply with the USDA School Meal
Initiative Regulations. In addition, she is working directly with DF2S to help implement our Farm to School
initiatives. Ana is excited to be working with DF2S, saying, “Having grown up in rural Croatia where we
grew and ate our own fruits and vegetables, I was raised to appreciate the most wholesome and freshest food. I am passionate about Farm to School because I believe that eating unprocessed, fresh, local,
and organic food is an important step in fighting childhood obesity, chronic disease, and general mental
apathy.”

Internship Placement: Wylde Center at Sugar Creek Garden
and Farm Burger. Nate started his summer at Sugar Creek
Garden working with all sorts of plants – edible and inedible.
At press time, Nate is beginning his restaurant work at Farm
Burger.
Interests: Agriculture; working outdoors; is considering attending the Agriculture School at Cal Poly
Learned at Sugar Creek: “I have learned about biodynamics
and what it takes to wake up and work in the dirt every day.”
Biodynamic farming is a method of encouraging a self-sustaining ecosystem on the farmland. Crop rotation, irrigation
techniques such as rainwater capture, and natural fertilization
are among the techniques applied in biodynamic farming, in
order to minimize impact and expense and maximize fertility
and nutrition of the harvest.
Idea for DF2S? “I would like to see fresh local produce in the
school cafeteria. It won’t be able to happen every day right
away, but the more often the better.”
Mohammed Yussef, 10th grade

CSD Awarded the
Golden Radish Award
On Tuesday March 5, 2013, the City Schools
of Decatur was one of 25 school districts
presented with a “Golden Radish Award”
for successfully completing the Five Million
Meals Challenge, a statewide effort to serve
more local produce in school cafeterias.
CSD Nutrition Director Allison Goodman
was at the event at the state capitol to
receive the award.
Initiated by Georgia Organics and its partners in fall 2012, the Five Million Meals
Challenge encourages school systems in
Georgia to strive to serve five million meals
made with locally grown food in K-12
cafeterias. Goodman confirmed that all
schools in the Decatur system participated
and averaged 2,000 meals a day during the
one-year program. She said, “This challenge
reaffirmed our commitment to Farm to
School initiatives. It made us aware of other
Georgia systems trying to do what we are
doing, so we can network and share successes and failures.”

Meet the Decatur Farm to School Summer Interns!
Now in its second year, the Decatur Farm to School summer internship program
is sponsoring three Decatur High School students to work at local farms, farm-totable restaurants, and the Decatur International Farmers’ Market in order to gain
firsthand experience on what it takes to produce, procure, and prepare fresh foods.
Based on their field work, these students will provide Decatur Farm to School with
their ideas on integrating fresh foods into the school menus and on increasing Decatur Farm to School’s impact at the higher grade levels. The interns receive a stipend
in exchange for their site work and contributions to DF2S. You will hear from our
interns in their own words later this year, but let us briefly announce this year’s
impressive students:
McKenzie Rhone, 11th grade
Internship Placement: Leon’s Full Service and Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens.
McKenzie started her summer in the kitchen at Leon’s and at press time is heading
to Love is Love Farm, a Decatur farm located at 900 Dancing Fox Road in the East
Lake area.
Interests: Cooking and studying nutrition
Learned at Leon’s: “I have learned so much at Leon`s that it is hard to narrow down
one answer. I have learned about health regulations, such as needing to keep raw
meat at the bottom of a storage freezer, to how to serve someone food -- and even
how to stack glassware on top of your arms to save trips back and forth from the
front of the house to the kitchen. I now realize how much prep work the chefs and
bartenders have to do -- it’s a lot! I have learned that the restaurant business, or at
least Leon`s, is like a family. Everyone helps each other out.”
Ideas for DF2S? “I think we really need to get students to do hands-on jobs to actually see the tremendous amount of work that goes into preparing healthy, tasty,
and fresh food. I think starting a club at DHS might be a very useful way to do this.
There could be after-school trips to farms where students will help with the process
of planting, growing, cultivating, and collecting the food that DF2S brings to the cafeterias. Then ideally, having the students help to prepare, cook, and serve the food
during lunch time. Instead of bringing DF2S to the students and saying ‘Here, try
this,’ it might be more effective to bring the students to DF2S, and have the students
see and do the work themselves to bring food to their peers.” (cont’d next page)

Internship Placement: Global Growers Network (GGN) and
Decatur International Farmer’s Market (DIFM). Mohammed
is our first intern participating in an exciting new partnership
with GGN, a nonprofit organization that trains international
and refugee farmers now settled in Georgia in the agricultural
businesses of growing, harvesting, and selling produce. GGN
currently works with over 230 families, and in 2012 these farmers grew 180,000 pounds of produce. Mohammed worked at a
GGN farm and also at the GGN table at DIFM.
Interests: gardening; hopes to introduce gardening into his local community
Learned at GGN and DIFM: “How to harvest and how to plant,
which is really amazing… I only knew the names of one or two
plants and now I know a lot. The [Wednesday] market is also
amazing – I wish I had another day working with Jamie [supervisor] because it is amazing. I actually learned how to do my
profits and sell my stuff.”
Idea for DF2S? “I want to do a community garden that is right
by my school. I want to work with the person that owns the
garden. I want to do a personal project at my school – something new that you yourself have to create – I want to do that
at my garden, that’s close by me.”

Volunteer Spotlight:
Anne-Marie Anderson
Anne-Marie Anderson has been volunteering
for the last two years with Clairemont
Elementary School, where her daughter Scarlett
is a rising third grader. Together in consultation
with teachers, students, parents, landscaping staff, and DF2S, she helped
develop a school garden plan.
Last year, parents and students installed the first phase: 12 raised beds
that have already been used to grow lettuce and collards for cafeteria
tastings, and a composting station, so students can study soil formation
and structure, and maybe raise worms as class pets.
“As a parent and landscape professional (my business, The Celtic
Gardener, helps clients with edible landscaping, chickens, and bees), I
can’t think of anything more important than encouraging children to find
out how plants grow, where their food comes from, and that it’s OK to
get dirty! There’s nothing like planting a seed, watering it, and watching
what happens. It’s all a big science experiment, and we learn just as
much when something doesn’t grow as when it does.
Decatur Farm to School is a real driving force to help local schools
maximize their resources, and to provide hands-on assistance and
expertise when time and people power are limited. We have a tendency
to overcomplicate things, so simple veggie plantings and cafeteria
tastings are a fabulous reminder that we can all grow and appreciate
healthy, local food.”
Anne-Marie first visited the Wylde Center in 2009 to attend ‘Chickens
101’. Four years later, she now teaches that same class, volunteers as
Chair of the Urban Coop Tour, is a member of the Bee Team and enjoys
taking full advantage of the unrivalled schedule of classes and events.

(Sweet Potato Taste Test cont’d)

Collards a Tasty Success
The sweet potato plantings come immediately on the heels of this
spring’s collard plantings and taste tests. At the end of May, students
from College Heights and Winnona Park harvested and tasted the
young, raw collard greens they grew themselves. At College Heights,
98% of students bravely tried the new vegetable, and 78% liked it.
Among the students at Winnona Park, 88% of the students tried
the collards and 61% of the students liked them. Golden, from Ms.
Edwards’ class, exclaimed, “I love this stuff!” while Maya, from Miss
March’s class, liked it so much she asked, “Did a professional make
this?” In Ms. Tolsman’s class, a full quarter of the class was clamoring
for seconds of the tasty greens! With such success, we can’t wait to
try the sweet potatoes this fall with even more students!

Are YOU interested in the Summer 2014 DF2S internship? Look
for applications this winter!

Nate Scully during his internship at Sugar Creek Garden.

Nichole Lupo, the Wylde
Center’s Garden to
Classroom Coordinator
plants sweet potatoes with
students at the College
Heights Early Learning
Center.